But the movie seems in poor taste. I've not seen it - nor have I met Seth Rogen's parents. But imagine creating a funny skit of Seth's family attacked, including rape, murder, etc. Ho ho ho - fictional comedy? Terrible! -- why antagonize & dirty what people hold dear? Some 'artistic' acts are legal, but perpetrators may regret being coarse, crude and cruel, and profiting directly from causing distress to others.

Now those irritated by Rogen are fighting back. They use illegal tactics. They've scared many businesses with threats of desperate retaliation.

Seth's project was ill-conceived. Attacking religion, or family, or nation (or other areas held dear) is dumb & dangerous. Seth's an insensitive young Canadian businessman, too eager for dollars...

smartphone
I hate this word - Look at a "smartphone" two years old: it's obsolete & no longer smart (but still a 'smartphone') ... these tools have many functions ... one better term is "commby" (communications + by = short & cute)... New name needed! (generic, not a brandname)

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Many torture horrors are admitted, generously labeled "abuses and countless mistakes" (p.2 in U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein's foreword). It must be remembered government inflicted these torments on people prior to trial or conviction. Most captives were never legally tried, and some were tortured to death.

Surely government agents & outside contractors treated prisoners / captives / hostages with barbaric cruelty. This included (p.100) stripping the detainee, pushing their head down below their body, jamming a hose up their arse, and powering water into their guts -- the report's euphemism is "rectal rehydration as a means of behavior control"...

Oversight has been minimal and ineffective. The severity of American tortures, and the number tortured, is still wholly unknown.

Highlighting detainees subject to "enhanced interrogation techniques" the CIA's Director ordered officials to keep the count at 98 (report p. 476) -- so any "true" torture count is horribly tainted. But surely those mistreated, including our own armed forces, number in the millions.

Shareholders in Halliburton & Blackwater corporations gained billions in taxpayer monies. Even the cost of the Senate report was over US$40 million. Damage to U.S. reputation? Priceless. Remember the smirks of George Bush, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and their henchmen? They beggared the USA. Imprison all these swindlers with their colleague Bernie Madoff !

U.S. involvement in the ongoing wars for the Middle East cannot be justified. Claims of "keeping us secure" are bullshit - top people at the policy level didn't & do not care if Joe America lives or starves to death. The rich got richer.

This year's Nobel Laureate Physics, Shuji Nakamura, was stripped of Japanese nationality on becoming a naturalized American (he's a Professor at UCal Santa Barbara in the USA). Is Japan's government embarrassed? Most news in Japan simply ignores the inconvenient truth.

The rot (?!) reaches to the very top. Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito and his wife, Princess Masako, were both sent overseas to study at Oxford University. Is such excellent background now a negative liability?

Surely something is rotten in Japan -- but it is short-sighted domestic xenophobia. Japan's politicians, sad & feeble, seek Remilitarization -- against the wishes of most of the population. Narrow-focused domestic politicians & bureaucrats are once again secretly able to drag the nation to fascism & ultimate destruction.

This populist criticism is stupid, and a form of protectionism. Korea embarrasses itself. Foreign companies wanting to do business in Korea must recognize the discriminatory system. Kentucky Fried Chicken and Lone Star (link) have suffered from this xenophobia and foreigner-bashing.

Of course prices are different internationally. Companies typically seek to charge whatever they can get - and they price strategically. Some products are cheap. Others are expensive - Don't buy when you don't wish to pay...

Outside Korea, small dishes of kimchi, namul and banchan (반찬) cost money at Korean restaurants -- inside Korea, these side dishes are usuallyfree - provided at no cost, and with generous refills. Should restaurants worldwide be forced to give those foods away, because they're free in Korea? Does this mean Korean restaurant owners operating in Europe and the USA are evil and should be punished? Surely not - pricing is a business decision. When a business operator asks too much, they cannot sell their products, and soon will need to close. Search for profit is the (only) reason foreigners launch commercial activities in difficult Korea. That's business.

Saturday, December 06, 2014

Three Japanese-born researchers this week will receive the Nobel Prize for Physics, but one is now an American. Japan's government forced Dr. Shuji Nakamura to give up his Japanese nationality on becoming a naturalized US citizen.

Though news reports in Japan crow noisily about the three Japanese laureates, Prof. Nakamura is notJapanese, and in some sense is an OUTCAST. So sad, shortsighted and unnecessary!

One day Japan will recognize multiculturalism has many strengths, and global individuals will not need to give-up being Japanese. Japan today remains inward-looking, often xenophobic and racist... Nobel prizewinner Nakamura is American, no longer a son of Nippon. Fiction hides fact, even in Japanese science & technology.

The old dependable Japanese post office is dead. Now we suffer under Japan Post Holdings Co., Ltd.(日本郵政株式会社), a new and wholly government-owned administrative frankenstein.

Squadrons of robotic & obstructionist younger workers have been hired to reeducate the population on the authority and primacy of bureaucrats.

Japan is still rigid & semi-feudal. The population must regularly petition officials for all sorts of silly permissions, who then must stamp OK on every page. Such antics keep Japan uncompetitive.

Yesterday I was part of an uncomfortable group watching a worker individually weigh 94 business letters (all same weight & price). I've experienced bureaucracy in mailing a postcard. Japan's bureaucratic time-wasting need not account for itself.

These nutty officials are polite but firm - Just what Japan needs in its brutal drive to Remilitarize under Abenomics.

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Many recognize efforts to restart Japan's atomic reactors as profit-motivated, even in the face of TEPCO Fukushima having run from disaster, abandoning many financial responsibilities. The Fukushima disaster leaves a NO-GO wasteland, a still-evacuated local population, and a continually poisoned ocean. Some elements of the food supply and environment are now highly toxic & deadly.

Japan's PM Shinzō "Sonny" Abe is a former Kobe Steel industrialist, whose grandfather was a major architect of World War II. Sonny seeks to re-militarize Japan.

How much do Japanese citizens know, and how much information is withheld from them? It's surprising that during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and nuclear explosion & meltdown, news footage in Japan was heavily censored. For many months, official channels covered-up the scale & horror of what happened because it was 'disturbing' -- people elsewhere in the world watched much more of the disasters live on television.

Friday, November 21, 2014

I believe communities cannot be responsible for each new arrival. Newcomers without resources are not society's responsibility. Sadly, the world has many homeless - but they've no right to demand entry to my home. If they sneak inside, they've no permit to stay.

US Immigration is not broken. Guests & intruders have no valid continuing business in the USA. People admitted temporarily can be sent away. A few positive stories about illegal visitors masks huge costs and corruption. The 'friendly' gate-crasher is not a legitimate resident, and has no right of abode.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

US broadband providers are part of huge conglomerates. These media business interests want to capture your home and your attention. If possible, they will decide what to feed you and they'llcontrol what information you can receive.

Censorship Sucks.

Net Neutrality is the answer - treat the internet as a utility and don't allow businessmen to cutoff your services they dislike.

Because most media is owned by Big Business, news reports color this battle as contentious - it's not. This is a no-brainer: 99% of people don't want broadband providers fucking with their access. But media cultivates doubts, and deceives you. Bullshit about jobs and WWI-period legislation are smoke & mirrors. If your media is against net neutrality, you need better sources of real news: abandon that newspaper or TV channel; change now.

We spend & waste on war supplies, with no proper business in Syria or Iraq. What the fuck? - "teaching them" or "helping" some small elite is costly balderdash. We fight & beat ourselves in our increasingly pitiful "homeland" grubbing for welfare cheats or bad teachers, while Daddy Warbucks grabs hundreds of millions more windfall global profits. Choosing war leaves no money for local communities. Bring our military home !

Friday, November 07, 2014

It's hard for most American families to make ends meet; prices always rising, jobs are scarce. Blame militarism - draining our nation as a giant leech.

Most people in military service are sacrificing and working - it's only a few elite masters getting fatter on the system. They control opinion and our money supply. They decide which of a dozen generals in the Republic of Upper Pauvre will rule & plunder the region. Their chump is always King.

Sunday, November 02, 2014

Dozens of tinpot dictators, Kings, Emir, Presidents, Sultans and other scumbags owe their power to the USA. The American military's in the business of protecting certain assets (and asses) -- "friends of the USA" who sell-out, intimidate and tyrannize their own people for a photo op with Hilary Clinton, Obama cufflinks, free SodaStream drinks, hidden promises, and money.

America has populated many dozens of governments with crooked stooges. With the fall of Compaore, each remaining US-sycophant feels just a bit more exposed - knowing their own people's raw hostility, Yankee contempt, and global condemnation...

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Corporate connections with the US government are collusive and corrupting.

The national security state demands corporate obedience, and requires secrecy. In some cases, mechanisms of government are now hidden under a corporate cloak. Government spies are invited (or invite themselves) into technology companies and major services companies. Ed Snowden was officially employed by Dell, and by Booz Allen Hamilton. While the NSA (or CIA) believed they were his true master, Ed Snowden had a different view.

This government imposition is a threat. The lack of accountability and oversight is wrong and also corrupt. Surely some patriots are led to believe they work for a common good (perhaps undercover for their own government) when in fact controlled by an enemy. The business of business is business - not operating surreptitiously as an undisclosed appendage of government or a ruling party or demagogue.

Some private firms got huge sums of public money under TARP - unjustified monster subsidies shared among a small core of corrupt colleagues.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

What have the arrogant USA and half-willing allies achieved in our wars on Iraq and Afghanistan?

Nothing.

Death & destruction continue.

Waste. Unaffordable, inexcusable, criminal. Our militarist planners should be convicted and in prison. But we similarly failed to prosecute the genocidal planners who massacred America's native peoples. We did nothing after our horrific war in Vietnam & Southeast Asia, and criminal US "masterminds" escaped justice... America's worst enemy is its own cocky leadership.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

At least 56 people are confirmed dead on Japan's Mt. Ontake (御嶽山) after a sudden volcanic emission of gas, steam, rock & ash on 27th September. Many more people remain unaccounted for and are presumed dead. As of today, more than three weeks have passed since the explosion.

Japanese rescue workers are doing their best in adverse conditions: hiking into a dangerous volcanically-active area now covered with thick, sticky ash. Bad weather and poor visibility have greatly prolonged search efforts. But part of the disaster can be blamed on poor preparation.

Both low & high tech responses are sorely needed. Japan should be able to rally robots and drones that can operate in poor conditions and bad weather, using infrared and other sensors to find survivors and victims. We've sent such machinery to Mars; why can't Japan create appropriate search & rescue technology? (or buy-in needed competency)...

Finding victims could be sped up by using trained birds (raptors) or dogs or foxes that can detect smells or terrain anomalies.

The well-intentioned Japanese search & rescue teams are being filmed from above, and appear rather foolish tramping about and sliding around in the mud.

Japan should be able to better respond in times of trouble. This is an area where Japan should invest its "peace dividend" and lead the world. Instead, Japan looks incompetent and pitiful.

This problem is worse in the face of concerted efforts by ruling-party LDP politicians to massage the way Japan is portrayed in the media: sudden concern with depicting Japan positively, for international audiences to see the nation in the best way possible. That idea is not bad - when based on fact. Japan could be much more competent, a global model for search and rescue, a nation where militarism was rejected, where swords were turned to serve society.

Japan can convert military technology to peaceful uses and ultimately global service; "Peace Technology" creates lasting friends to ensure the nation's long term security & success.

Friday, October 10, 2014

Tokyo has been chosen to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. There are some efforts already towards generating a more global outlook in Japan. But regressive and xenophobic elements of Japanese society are blatant and remain in plain sight.

Will Japan be allowed to hold the Olympics? The biggest threat just now is nuclear fallout and radiation pollution from the leaking Fukushima reactors. Japanese people are told there's no danger. Nobody believes that. But while local residents have no escape, athletes of the world cannot be eager to expose themselves to poisons...

Japan suffers from mismanagement in a large part because policy inputs flow only from domestic, home-grown sources. Nobody champions great ideas already successful elsewhere. Japan's leadership wove a costly cocoon for itself, and still delays emerging to engage with the wider world.

Tuesday, October 07, 2014

The Korean government is persecuting a university teacher for "impure lectures" in a misguided attempt at interference that mocks & undermines professional freedoms. Higher education institutions & professors worldwide should vigorously protestKorean government censorship in university education.

In Israel, they use hasbara ("explaining" הַסְבָּרָה in Hebrew) for national goals. Korea has studied hasbara methods, good, bad & ugly. The Korean right-wing has perhaps gone far beyond in underhandedly promoting partisan politics and one favored political party. This is bad news for Korea, where anti-democratic repression by the authoritarian right-wing is ultimately unsustainable. The eventual housecleaning will bring about unwelcome repercussions and dangerous political & economic instability.

Prof. Shuji Nakamura is now based at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Discussion on Japanese television the day of the Nobel announcement gave no hint of past struggles and frictions, simply and proudly stating "three Japanese" won the Nobel Prize for Physics.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has shown he's not only a fool, but a danger to people in Japan.

Abe & Co. are working hard to get Japan's nuclear reactors back online, and beefing-up Japanese military efforts overseas. Politicians politicians pushing policies both unpopular & dangerously foolish.

Japan's nuclear industry is a bastard offspring from decades of LDP rule, and Japan's Liberal Democratic Party continues to poison the nation with feeble leadership. Abe is like George W. Bush: privileged thin-blooded child of a mediocre politician; more concerned with media & image than with the well-being & survival of his constituents.

Meanwhile, a volcano erupts in the center of Japan, killing dozens of day hikers. The government had offered no warning, provides minimal assistance, and now merely states Japan has lots of volcanoes...

We see twenty people lined-up holding blankets to screen victims being carried from helicopters to ambulances. At the same time, an unknown number of people remain trapped & unhelped on the mountainside.

We hear reports over many days of people found with no heartbeat and not breathing - but not considered dead (Days have passed - where are the Japanese government-licensed medical practitioners who can formally declare death?) Japan has a huge "self-defense" or military budget, but we see minimal rescue effort using mobile breathing systems & infrared goggles to find living victims. Why is robotic monitoring wholly beyond Japan's capability? And the people trapped would be thankful of rescue from any source - why not utilize the U.S. military, with many thousands of troops in Japan?

The world watches & wonders at Japan's bureaucracy & the inhumanity of government.